Climate and Sustainability

In another session devoted to climate change, host Professor Ray Horton talks about an unconventional way of halting global warming — known as solar geo-engineering — with Professor Gernot Wagner, faculty director of the Climate Knowledge Initiative at the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise and senior lecturer at Columbia Business School.

During a recent workshop at Columbia Business School, experts addressed the challenge of soaring emissions, highlighting the urgent need for a comprehensive transformation across the industry.

For many years, steelmaking has followed a consistent, two-step process: First, iron ore is mined and mixed with coal, as well as other substances, to make molten iron. This process most often happens using highly polluting blast furnaces. Some 90% of steel-related emissions come from this first iron-producing step.

Steel is an infamously hard-to-abate sector. For one thing, steel production assets have long lifespans before they are due for expensive upgrades. For another, the sector’s energy requirements are massive and will likely tax emerging clean energy systems. Some of these roadblocks can be circumvented — at least for the time being — with an embrace of transitional, “messy middle” technologies and processes, which can represent decarbonization potentials of between 10% and 50% (though they still carry significant green price premiums).

Host Professor Ray Horton speaks with Professor Geoffrey Heal, an economist and conservationist whose teaching and research on climate change have left an indelible mark on the School. 

Donnel Baird ’13, CEO and founder of BlocPower, joined Columbia Business School Professor Bruce Kogut as part of the Business, AI, and Democracy initiative’s BAID @TheHub speaker series.

The Brazil Climate Summit, held in September 2022, included panels on technology and disruption, policy changes and incentives to achieve net zero, climate justice, and the potential of the carbon credit economy.

The green building rating system measures how sustainable a building development is in areas including energy, water efficiency, material selection, and indoor air quality.